A New Era of Partnership: The Key to Success?

We are absolutely delighted to announce Wendy Tan White as the most recent addition to our community of regular bloggers. Wendy is the co-founder and CEO of Moonfruit, which was recently acquired by Yell group (recently re-branded Hibu) in a deal worth $37m. She is a 500 Startups mentor and was named female UK Tech Entrepreneur of the Year 2011. Welcome onboard Wendy!

Something caught my eye recently: an appearance by someone called Steve Moxon
before a Commons select committee as part of an inquiry into women in the
workplace. He is the author of a book called “The Women Racket” and that
perhaps gives you a clue as to his point of view.

Apparently with a straight face, he told
the committee that women were biologically unfit to rise to the top in business.

My favourite quote of his from a report of his
appearance was: “There’s no surprise that women have difficulty in the work
place, not only do they have difficulty but they don’t want to be there in the
first place!”

Some might worry that his views, expressed in
the hallowed halls of our legislature, were indicative of a society still
struggling to come to terms even with the concept of women succeeding in
business. But I take a more optimistic view.

Women aresucceeding in business, forging remarkable careers and rising to the top
across a varied range of industries. And the view that they should is
sufficiently robust and widespread to handle the likes of Mr Moxon.

In the UK at least, the story is looking
positive and remains on an upward trajectory. According to government
figures, 15.2% of directors of FTSE 100 companies in
February 2012 were women (up from 12.5% a year ago). For FTSE 250 companies,
9.6% of directors were women, up from 7.8% a year earlier.

In
my world, the world of tech, Microsoft
has appointed two female business leaders into senior roles following the departure
of Windows 8 boss Steven Sinofsky.

Long-time employee Julie Larson-Green has
been promoted to lead Windows software and hardware engineering while CFO Tami
Reller will take responsibility for the business side of Windows.

I’m a big
supporter of women of all ages and backgrounds in business, and particularly
technology entrepreneurship. Getting school-aged women interested in tech and
business has been a focus of mine since we started Moonfruit, and I’m pleased
to say that more women are becoming interested in historically male-dominated
industries.

Recently I
took part in the ‘Silicon Valley comes to the UK’ initiative created by serial
entrepreneur and investor Sherry Coutu which brought together entrepreneurs,
investors and thought leaders from the Valley and the UK to ignite technology entrepreneurship.
I was struck by the focus on Ed Tech and solving real world problems with
‘hard’ engineering and science. Eleven £billion+ revenue companies have been
created around the Cambridge educational hub. I spoke at the ‘Women in
Technology’ panel run by Audrey Mandela, who sold her company Multi-Map to Microsoft
and drives the WiTT and Global Board Ready Women initiative, and on a panel at The
Perse Girls School in Cambridge. It was certainly a contrast to my keynote a
few weeks ago at the FTInnovate conference, the audience being predominantly
over 40 and male. I said to the girls in 20 years time it will be them at
events like FTInnovate. I was really inspired by the enthusiasm and
intelligence of the young women I spoke to but also my fellow panellists,
Meghan Smith, VP Google[x], Alice Rajthen, Founder DNA Guide and Mary Lou
Jepsen, Founder One Laptop Per Child - all US serial entrepreneurs.

I think also that the prevalence of female
consumers is driving the growth of technology and women-led businesses.

At
Moonfruit where we provide powerful but simple design-led DIY website builders
for small businesses, more than 50% of Moonfruit shops are built by women.

But there
is still a need for more tools and resources so women can better understand how
they can make ideas happen. This year, Moonfruit was part of the ‘Business in You’ campaign, run
by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills. The campaign provided
free services such as workshops, web-based seminars and video tutorials, as
well as mentoring and face-to-face consultancy sessions to people interested in
starting developing a small business.

One subject
that has come up regularly – but perhaps
recently given more oxygen by the appointment of a pregnant Marissa Meyer to
head up Yahoo! – is the sometimes fraught topic of women balancing work,
motherhood and home life.

Anne
Marie Slaughter has argued that there should be an end to ‘the myth of having
it all’ and that the focus should be more on allowing women (and men!) to have
what they want, when they want it. Hanna Rosin discusses this idea at length in
her book The End of Men: And the Rise of Women, which I recommend
as a thought-provoking read. The title is deliberately controversial but I
agree with her assertion that we are moving away from the breadwinner or
homemaker roles.

My experience of running a business, family and
personal life is the strength that comes from the partnership between men and women.
I live this everyday with my co-founders - my husband Joe White and best friend Eirik
Pettersen.

I’d like to think we’re in a new era of partnership
where women can prove Steve Moxon entirely wrong.

Wendy Tan White is co-founder and CEO of Moonfruit, the UK’s leading DIY website and online shop builder for SMB's to publish on web, mobile and social platforms. Moonfruit was recently acquired by Yell group (recently re-branded Hibu) in a deal worth $37m as an important step in its transformation to a leading global digital services provider and local eMarketplace. Moonfruit was launched in 2000, bootstrapped post the Dotcom crash and innovated raising $2.4m from Stephens (US) and Silicon Valley-based 500 Startups in Sept 2010. She is a 500 Startups mentor, and supports the Astia, Women 2.0 and ChangeTheRatio networks. She was female UK Tech Entrepreneur of the Year 2011. For more info on Wendy, see her profile.

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The NextWomen is a community of Investors, Entrepreneurs & Advisers. We build formats to support the growth of female entrepreneurs -from
startups to companies making millions. We provide access to capital, resources and networks,
offering our community a support infrastructure critical for success. Join the community too! - See more at: http://www.thenextwomen.com/about-us/contributors#sthash.9GODHllB.dpuf

The NextWomen is a community of Investors, Entrepreneurs & Advisers. We build formats to support the growth of female entrepreneurs -from
startups to companies making millions. We provide access to capital, resources and networks,
offering our community a support infrastructure critical for success. Join the community too! - See more at: http://www.thenextwomen.com/membership/sign-up#sthash.0ApND3BW.dpuf

The NextWomen is
a community of Investors, Entrepreneurs & Advisers. We
build formats to support the growth of female entrepreneurs -from startups to
companies making millions. We provide access to capital, resources and
networks, offering our community a support infrastructure critical for success.